Fenian was an umbrella term for the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican
Brotherhood, fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an
independent Irish Republic in the 19th and early 20th century. The name Fenian
was first applied by John O'Mahony to the members of the Irish republican
group that he founded in the United States in 1848. O'Mahony, who was a
Celtic scholar, named the American wing of the movement after the Fianna. In
Gaelic Ireland these were warrior bands of young men who lived apart from
society and could be called upon in times of war.
The term Fenian is still used today, especially in Northern Ireland and
Scotland, where its original meaning has widened to include all supporters of
Irish nationalism. It has also been used as a demeaning term for Irish Catholics
and Catholics in general in the British Isles. Irish nationalists, while
honouring the 19th century Fenians, more often describe themselves as
"nationalist" or "republican". Fenianism
Fenianism, according to O'Mahony, is symbolised by two principles: firstly,
that Ireland has a natural right to independence, and secondly, that this
right could be won only by an armed revolution.
The term Fenianism was sometimes used by the British political establishment in
the 1860s for any form of mobilisation among the lower classes or those who
expressed any Irish nationalist sentiments. They warned people about
this threat to turn decent civilised society on its head such as that posed
by trade unionism to the existing social order in the United Kingdom.
Ireland James Stephens, one of the "Men of
1848," had established himself in Paris, and was in correspondence with John
O'Mahony in the United States and other advanced nationalists at home and
abroad. This would include the Phoenix National and Literary Society, with
Jeremiah O'Donovan among its more prominent members, had recently been
formed at Skibbereen. Along with Thomas Clarke Luby, John
O'Leary and Charles Kickham he founded the Irish Republican Brotherhood on 17
March 1858 in Lombard Street, Dublin. United States
The Fenian Brotherhood, the Irish Republican Brotherhood's US branch, was
founded by John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny, both of whom had been "out" in
1848. In the face of nativist suspicion, it quickly established an independent
existence, although it still worked to gain Irish American support for armed
rebellion in Ireland. Initially, O'Mahony ran operations in the US,
sending funds to Stephens and the IRB in Ireland, disagreement over O'Mahony's
leadership led to the formation of two Fenian Brotherhoods in 1865. The US
chapter of the movement was also sometimes referred to as the IRB. After
the failed invasion of Canada, it was replaced by Clan na Gael.
Canada In Canada, Fenian is used to designate a
group of Irish radicals, a.k.a. the American branch of the Fenian
Brotherhood in the 1860s. They made several attempts to invade some parts of
the Province of Canada which were a British dominion at the time. The
ultimate goal of the Fenian raids was to hold Canada hostage and therefore be in
a position to blackmail the United Kingdom to give Ireland its
independence. Because of the invasion attempts, support and/or collaboration
for the Fenians in Canada became very rare even among the Irish.
Francis Bernard McNamee, the man who started the Fenian movement in Montreal,
was a case in point. In public, he proclaimed his loyalty to the queen and
called for an Irish militia company to defend Canada against the Fenians. In
private, he wrote that the real purpose of an Irish militia company would be to
assist the Fenian invasion, adding for good measure that if the government
denied his request he would raise the cry of anti-Irish Catholic
discrimination and bring more of his aggrieved countrymen into the Fenian
Brotherhood. A suspected Fenian, Patrick J. Whelan,
was hanged in Ottawa for the assassination of Irish Canadian
politician, Thomas D'Arcy McGee in 1868, who had been a member of the Irish
Confederation in the 1840s. The danger posed by the Fenian raids was
an important element in motivating the British North America colonies to
consider a more centralised defence for mutual protection which was ultimately
realised through Canadian Confederation. England
The Fenians in England and the Empire were a major threat to political
stability. In the late 1860s the IRB control centre was in Lancashire. In
1868 the Supreme Council of the IRB, the provisional government of the Irish
Republic, was restructured. The four Irish provinces, Connacht, Leinster,
Ulster and Munster, Scotland, the north of England and the south of England,
including London, had representatives on the Council. Later four honorary members
were co-opted. The Council elected three members to the executive. The President
was chairman, the Treasurer managed recruitment and finance and the
Secretary was director of operations. There were IRB Circles in every major
city in England. In 1867, three Fenians, William Philip
Allen, Michael O'Brian, and Michael Larkin, known as the Manchester Martyrs,
were executed in Salford for their attack on a police van to release
Fenians held captive earlier that year. Contemporary usage
= Northern Ireland= In Northern Ireland, Fenian is used by
some as a derogatory word for Catholics. = Scotland=
The term Fenian is used similarly in Scotland. During Scottish football
matches it is often aimed in a sectarian manner at supporters of Celtic F.C..
Celtic has its roots in Glasgow's immigrant Catholic Irish population and
the club has thus been associated with Irish nationalism, symbolised by the
almost universal flying of the Irish Tricolour during matches. Other Scottish
clubs that have Irish roots, such as Hibernian and Dundee United, do not have
the term applied to them, however. The term is now firmly rooted within the Old
Firm rivalry between Celtic and Rangers, as a rivalry between "orange and green"
has been replaced by one between "blue and green".
= Australia= In Australia Fenian is used as a
pejorative term for those members of the Australian Labor Party who have
Australian Republican views similar to those who support Irish unification.
Michael Atkinson, Attorney-General of South Australia, spoke of those members
of the ALP who wished to remove the title Queen's Counsel and other
references to the crown as "Fenians and Bolsheviks" in a speech given at the ALP
Convention in Adelaide on 15 October 2006. Atkinson made a further mention of
Fenianism when the title of Queen's Counsel was abolished.
Quotations 'The Fenians were the best men in Irish
politics.' Attributed to Isaac Butt, B. O'Brien, The Life of Charles Stewart
Parnell, 1846—1891, p. 63 'The Fenian is the artist in Irish
politics. He is an inspiration, an ornament, a hero.' Liam O'Flaherty, 'The
Life of Tim Healy'p. 40. ' ... the fools, the fools, the fools!
They have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves,
Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.' Padraig Pearse's graveside oration at
the reinterment of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa's remains in Glasnevin Cemetery in
August 1915. Cultural references
In Anthony Trollope's The Eustace Diamonds, Lord George de Bruce
Carruthers, an Irish peer, is a man about town with no visible means of
income. He is 'a bitter radical' and 'was suspected even of republican
sentiments, and ignorant young men about London hinted that he was the grand
centre of the British Fenians.' A full description follows.
Arthur Conan Doyle's 'Touch and Go: A Midshipman's Story', was published in
1886, the year the First Home Rule Bill was introduced in the House of Commons.
Set in 1868, a young midshipman and his two companions are shipwrecked on the
Irish Sea. A launch carrying the IRB leader, the 'Fenian head-centre' James
Stephens, 'a middle-aged man in dark clothes and a grey overcoat', rescues
them. Stephens puts the young midshipman and his friends ashore on the Isle of
Man and asks for their silence. Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent,
published in 1907 but set in 1886, takes place against the background of
terrorist bombings in Britain. Although Conrad's bombers are anarchists, most
critics agree that the Fenian bombings are a significant part of his
inspiration, especially as international anarchist terrorism in the nineteenth
century had had comparatively little impact in Britain compared to the Fenian
campaigns. In the 2011 Christmas Day Special of the
television series Downton Abbey, Lord Grantham, after learning of the
pregnancy of his daughter Sybil, who is married to an Irish revolutionary, says,
"So, we're to have a Fenian grandchild." His wife, Lady Grantham, replies, "Cheer
up. Come the revolution, it may be useful to have a contact on the other
side." In the 2014 Christmas Day Special of the
television series Downton Abbey, Mr. Stowell, Lord Sinderby's butler,
condescendingly wonders if Mr. Branson would be picking up the grouses or
reading Motor magazine when the others are shooting. Upon hearing that he is,
in fact, a very good shot, Stowell remarks "Is he, indeed? I suppose that
was his training with The Fenians", with obvious disdain for both Branson's Irish
nationalism and his previous employment as a low-ranking chauffeur.
The term is used in the movie Patriot Games. In the movie, when captured after
a botched attempt against a Royal's life, a separatist group member is
interrogated, and during this period is slapped and called a "Fenian bastard" by
one of his British captors. Down by the Glenside is an Irish rebel
song written by Peadar Kearney, an Irish Republican and composer of numerous
rebel songs, including "The Soldier's Song" and "The Tri-coloured Ribbon".
The term is frequently used in the BBC's 2013 Series Peaky Blinders. in the
series, a family of Birmingham gangsters are pursued by Major Chester Campbell, a
police officer reassigned from his Belfast home to deal with Birmingham's
criminality, who applies the strategies he had previously used in repressing
Republican agitation in Ireland. See also
Taig Footnotes
References Sean Cronin, The McGarrity Papers, Anvil
Books, Ireland, 1972 P. S. O'Hegarty, A History of Ireland
Under the Union, Methuen & Co.. Robert Kee, The Bold Fenian Men, Quartet
Books, ISBN 0-7043-3096-2 M J Kelly, The Fenian Ideal and Irish
Nationalism, 1882–1916, Boydell and Brewer, 2006,ISBN 1-84383-445-6
Michael Kenny, The Fenians, The National Museum of Ireland in association with
Country House, Dublin, 1994, ISBN 0-946172-42-0
Owen McGee, The IRB: The Irish Republican Brotherhood from The Land
League to Sinn Féin, Four Courts Press, 2005, ISBN 1-85182-972-5
Leon Ó Broin, Fenian Fever: An Anglo-American Dilemma, Chatto & Windus,
London, 1971, ISBN 0-7011-1749-4. Marta Ramón, A Provisional Dictator:
James Stephens and the Fenian Movement, University College Dublin Press, ISBN
978-1-904558-64-4 Mark F. Ryan, Fenian Memories, Edited by
T.F. O'Sullivan, M. H. Gill & Son, LTD, Dublin, 1945
Desmond Ryan, The Fenian Chief: A Biography of James Stephens, Hely Thom
LTD, Dublin, 1967 Mitchell Snay. Fenians, Freedmen, and
Southern Whites: Race and Nationality in the Era of Reconstruction
Finini Mheiricea agus an Ghaeilge, Fionnuala Ui Fhlannagain, OCLC 305144100
Jane Stanford 'That Irishman The Life and Times of John O'Connor Power', The
History Press Ireland, Dublin 2011, ISBN 978-1-84588-698-1
Patrick Steward and Bryan McGowan, The Fenians: Irish Rebellion in the North
Atlantic World, 1858-1876. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2013.
'The Fenians in Context Irish Politics & Society 1848–82', Dublin: R.V.Comerford,
1985. Patrick Quinlavin and Paul Rose, 'The
Fenians in England'. Niall Whelehan, The Dynamiters: Irish
Nationalism and Political Violence in the Wider World, 1867–1900.
Thompson, Francis John. "Fenianism and the Celtic Renaissance". A dissertation
studying the interrelation between the exponents of physical force and the
literature produced in, or about, Ireland during the period between 1858
and 1916.. University of South Florida Tampa Library: New York University. pp.
1281, 5 vols. Thompson, Francis John. "Francis J.
Thompson Diary". A journal of Francis Thompson research for Fenianism and the
Celtic Renaissance. University of South Florida Tampa Library. p. 229.
External links Fenians.org
Fenian Brotherhood BBC History article on the Irish
Republican Brotherhood 1865 newspaper Article describing the
Fenians History Learning Site > Ireland 1848 to
1922 > The Fenian Movement The Fenian Movement in the US including
digitised materials about their activities. From the Immigration to the
United States, 1789–1930 collection, Harvard University Library Open
Collections Program